The Escape Artist Synopsis
Anne Frank. Primo Levi. Oskar Schindler . . . Rudolf Vrba. In April 1944 nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba and fellow inmate Fred Wetzler became the first Jews ever to break out of Auschwitz. Under electrified fences and past armed watchtowers, evading thousands of SS men and slavering dogs, they trekked across marshlands, mountains and rivers to freedom. Vrba's mission: to reveal to the world the truth of the Holocaust.
In the death factory of Auschwitz, Vrba had become an eyewitness to almost every chilling stage of the Nazis' process of industrialised murder. The more he saw, the more determined he became to warn the Jews of Europe what fate awaited them. A brilliant student of science and mathematics, he committed each detail to memory, risking everything to collect the first data of the Final Solution. After his escape, that information would form a priceless thirty-two-page report that would reach Roosevelt, Churchill and the pope and eventually save over 200,000 lives. But the escape from Auschwitz was not his last. After the war, he kept running - from his past, from his home country, from his adopted country, even from his own name. Few knew of the truly extraordinary deed he had done. Now, at last, Rudolf Vrba's heroism can be known - and he can take his place alongside those whose stories define history's darkest chapter.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781529369069 |
| Publication date: |
25th May 2023 |
| Author: |
Jonathan Freedland |
| Publisher: |
John Murray Publishers Ltd an imprint of John Murray Press |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
416 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Other Genres: |
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Jonathan Freedland Press Reviews
'Excellent . . . thrilling . . . Freedland's book is rich in the kind of details that haunt you long after you have turned the last page' - Sunday Times
'A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of information - and misinformation' - Yuval Noah Harari
'A magnificent book. I could scarcely breathe at some points. What a tribute to its extraordinary hero, and it's such an important and necessary story to read . . . I can't praise it too highly. What an achievement' - Philip Pullman
'An immediate classic of Holocaust literature. Superbly researched and written, it is both a gripping story and deeply moving, I literally could not put it down' - Antony Beevor
'Immersive, shattering, and, ultimately redemptive book . . . An epic of terror and endurance . . . Written with Freedland's page-turning, gripping, hard-edged immediacy, The Escape Artist is profound in thought, boundless in humanity, an immediate modern classic' - Simon Schama
'Awe inspiring, exciting and poignant, this is a thrilling read, a piece of redemptive storytelling and a work of important Holocaust historical research: Freedland has given Rudolf Vrba his rightful place in history - and in the process written a book that I couldn't put down' - Simon Sebag Montefiore
'The Escape Artist is marvellous. It is original, meticulous and utterly compelling - and ultimately a deeply tragic tale' - Philippe Sands
'A must-read stand out piece of history . . . This is Freedland at his finest . . . It is both a celebration of the extraordinary will, courage and resilience of the hero - Rudi Vrba - and an all too prescient warning of how hard it is to wake up the world to things it would prefer not to see' - Emily Maitlis
'A work of the highest quality about an astonishing man. It is gripping from start to finish, searingly, shocking, revelatory, and deeply moving - the more so because there is no false note, no striving for effect. The research is prodigious and the complexities deftly woven into the narrative . . . A profoundly troubling and important work' - Jonathan Dimbleby
'A masterpiece of page-turning history: an escape story that is also a fearless exploration of some of the most profound questions that face humanity. Rudolf Vrba's extraordinary testimony will deepen your understanding of the Holocaust - and compel you to think afresh about our own times, and the role of truth, denial and fragile memory. Magisterial' - Matthew d'Ancona
'The story of Vrba's escape from Auschwitz, exquisitely told by Jonathan Freedland, soars like a thriller. Exhilarating, deeply moving, and historically important' - Simon Parkin
'Powerful, important, compelling and superbly told. This is a book that needs to be read' - Bart van Es, bestselling author of The Cut Out Girl
'An indispensable, unflinching, bone-hard book. Compelling reading' - Howard Jacobson
'I read it with my heart beating fast, full of horror, rage, despair - and admiration for this potent demonstration of the stubborn resilience of the human spirit' - Tracy Chevalier
'Brilliant' - Julia Neuberger
'Meticulously researched . . . shocking but thrilling, and ultimately overwhelmingly inspiring' - Daily Mail
'Astonishing . . . An indispensable part of Holocaust history . . . Gripping' - Guardian
'An utterly gripping narrative, incorporating a restrained though harrowing picture of life in Auschwitz and a kind of heroic adventure story' - Guardian
About Jonathan Freedland
Jonathan Freedland is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster. He is the Guardian's executive editor for Opinion, overseeing Comment is free, editorials and long reads. He also writes a weekly column. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, and presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series, The Long View. In 2014 he was awarded the Orwell special prize for journalism, having been named columnist of the year in the 2002 What the Papers Say awards. Since 2006 he has published five best-selling novels under the pseudonym Sam Bourne. The first, The Righteous Men, was a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller, and has been translated into 30 languages. His subsequent novels have all been top five bestsellers. Jonathan was educated at Wadham College, Oxford - where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and edited the university newspaper, Cherwell - and, earlier, at University College School, London. He lives in London with his wife and their two children.
Author photo © Philippa Gedge
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